Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company, has hiked its international call tariffs by 10 percent for certain destinations for both prepaid and postpaid users while also reducing benefits on add-on services for prepaid users.

According to reports, an Airtel spokesperson has reportedly said tariff rationalisation is a continuous process and a function of market dynamics. With the correction of tariffs for a few international destinations, they continue to remain competitive and deliver value to their customers.

Further, it has been reported Airtel’s prepaid schemes offering users flexible billing plans and reduced roaming tariffs, will now offer fewer benefits for a validity period of six months as compared to one year. As per sources, the operator has reduced the data limit from 2GB to 1GB for US$ 1.91, while also cutting down on the price for regular data download to US$ 0.002 per 10 KB from the earlier charge of US$ 0.005 per KB.

According to company reports, the operator witnessed its seventh consecutive profit decline in the third quarter results, reporting a net profit of US$ 200.5 million down by 38.17 percent from US$ 324.4 million recorded during the same period last year.

 

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Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, has reportedly lost 186,000 postpaid subscribers during the third quarter even though it reported net customer additions of 126,000. According to reports, the number of postpaid subscribers leaving the operator has improved as compared to the 281,000 postpaid subscriber losses during the second quarter but has worsened when compared with 54,000 contract subscriber losses in the third quarter of last year.

As per sources, Philipp Humm, President and CEO of T-Mobile USA, has said that attractive prepaid offerings helped them add customers in the third quarter of 2011. Further, company reports reveal that the prepaid customers went up from 231,000 in the second quarter to 312,000 subscribers in the third quarter.

Regarding the contract ARPU, reports suggest that it remained unchanged at $53 in the second quarter of 2011 and went up from $52 during the third quarter of 2010.

 

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Vodafone UK has launched a new marketing campaign worth $3.2 million in an attempt to increase mobile internet usage. According to reports, the campaign targets both postpaid as well as prepaid segments and focuses on the simple services that help improve a user’s daily life.

The campaign reportedly features four service elements which include Vodafone’s unlimited data offer for the first three months on new contract plans; a service that transfers customers’ contacts and media on to their new phones; the Buyback scheme allowing customers to trade in their old phones; and the Sure Signal, that enables customers to boost the mobile signal in their homes. According to industry reports, as much as half of the population in UK owns a smartphone, which is beneficial for mobile operators as date services generate higher margins as compared to regular phones and voice plans.

 

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Telefonica’s brand Movistar has reportedly started a pre-subscription programme ahead of its commercial launch in Costa Rica. According to reports, customers who register for one of Movistar’s prepaid or postpaid plans will receive reduced rates at the time of launch. Registered prepaid customers will receive a special tariff of $0.02 per minute for calls to Movistar’s other prepaid customers on Sundays, while postpaid customers will receive a similar benefit for Sundays and holidays.

As per sources, Jorge Abadia, Director, Movistar has said that they will not have the 100 percent coverage they would like on the first day, but are confident that they would have complete coverage of the San Jose metropolitan area by July 2012 and would offer nationwide coverage by 2016. The operator reportedly expects to launch its services commercially in the next few weeks.

 

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Airtel Nigeria, a leading global telecommunications company, has launched new packages for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), corporates, postpaid and BlackBerry users.  The new packages offer users attractive tariffs with increased data volumes providing subscribers more affordable access to data enabled services.

According to reports, Rajiv Sehgal, Vice-President and Head Enterprise and Postpaid Business, said that the package was conceived to address the needs of its customers in various segments namely: Corporate Organisations, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), individual postpaid customers and BlackBerry users.

He further added that there were three distinctive categories for corporate organizations, namely Corporate Plus; Corporate Pro and Corporate Premium, with each of them consisting of their own unique voice, SMS and data tariffs. Also, free talk minutes, SMS and data of up to 1GB is available. Further, customers under a Close User Group (CUG) of 100 staff and above can make Airtel to Airtel calls for 17k/sec (USD 0.001) and 25k/sec (USD 0.0015) to other networks.

For the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), there are two plans – SME Plus and SME Pro. Both plans include discounted tariffs in voice (including international calls) for 17k/sec (USD 0.001) and 30k/sec (USD 0.0018), SMS and data. In addition, there is free airtime, complimentary data and up 30 free SMS’s. In order to completely utilize this plan, the SME is required to have 10 to 99 lines under the Close User Group (CUG).

The retail or individual category consists of four plans; the Advance plan (annual), Intermediate plan (monthly), Basic and Family plans. These offer free calls, SMS and data as well as up to 150 free CUG minutes. Under these plans users can make discounted call at the rate of 15k/sec (USD 0.001) for Airtel to Airtel and 25k/sec (USD 0.0015) to other networks.

Sources claim that Airtel’s Chief Operating Officer, Deepak Srivastava, said that Airtel is committed to partnering and supporting initiatives that will help boost the Nigerian economy and also empower and enrich Nigerians. He stated that they also recognise that the corporate world is just as important for growth and development, therefore, the need to empower the cooperate sector with telecoms offerings that will make their life and business more enjoyable and profitable became necessary.

 

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Globacom launches micro Sims (Nigeria)

Globacom has launched micro Sims for its customers.

The smaller cards are aimed at subscribers with devices such as the Apple iPad and iPhone.

The micro Sim is less than half the size of the conventional Sim, and also has adequate space on its chip for numerous provider applications and increased control and security functions.

The card is available to both Glo prepaid and postpaid subscribers and comes with a price tag of  US$4.49. The card is available at any Gloworld shop nationwide.

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M1, SingTel and StarHub, and Ericsson’s global mobile commerce enabler IPX, have launched a donation drive to aid victims of the Japan disaster.

As per the donation drive, postpaid mobile customers in Singapore will be able to make a US$3.96, $7.92 or US$15.85 donation by sending SMS to a common short-code.

Donations will go towards the Singapore Red Cross Society’s relief efforts in Japan. This mobile donation campaign will continue for one month, starting from March 28 till April 25.

M1, SingTel, StarHub and Ericsson have jointly agreed to waive all administration fees associated with such premium SMS, and forward the full proceeds to the relief organization. The donations will be reflected in customers’ next monthly bill from their respective mobile service providers. Donations are not tax-deductible and people below the age of eighteen will require parental or guardian consent before making a donation.

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Zain Kuwait announced that it will be offering a 50% discount on all SMS messages to Bangladesh. the operator will also be offering a 20% discount on international calls to Bangladesh as they celebrate Independence Day on  March 26.

The offer applies for one day only for both postpaid and prepaid customers.

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Turkcell (NYSE: TKC, ISE: TCELL), the leading communications and technology company, which has mobile operations in eight countries and is Europe’s 3rd largest operator in terms of subscriber base, is delighted to announce that it is now expanding its operations into nine countries by initiating operations in Germany. A 100% Turkcell Group subsidiary; Turkcell Europe, headquartered in Cologne, has entered the market with the goal of creating a unique experience for its subscribers in Turkey and Germany, and is set to commence its provision of services on April 4, 2011 via 1,200 stores.

Turkcell Europe will meet the mobile communication needs of Turkish citizens living in Germany, as well as other mobile users with close ties to Turkey, through its best practices. Whether prepaid or postpaid, each Turkcell Europe subscriber with a Turkcell Europe line will benefit from offers tailored to the needs of diverse customer segments, and communicate at affordable prices, both in Turkey and Germany via flat rate offers. These offers, which enable Turkcell Europe subscribers to talk at advantageous prices while travelling from Germany to Turkey will also eliminate the need to change SIM cards or numbers during their stay in Turkey.

Turkcell CEO SureyyaCiliv; “We are proud to connect both countries and our citizens through the mobile communication bridge we have established 50 years after the first migrationfrom Turkey to Germany. We will provide our customers with Turkcell’s high quality products and services through outstanding voice and data offers, using the Germany’s extensive and high quality network. We aim to become the number one operator for subscribers who wish to communicate with their relatives in Germanyand Turkey while using the most feasible roaming advantages at affordable prices. Those subscribers are the ones who are keen on receiving Turkish content and information instantly through our innovative mobile services, as well as the ones who prefer to connect life with Turkey’s Turkcell.”

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VivaCell-MTS has introduces a new postpaid plan called ‘Personal’.

The monthly fee is US$2722.64 and includes 5,000 on-net airtime minutes, 200 minutes for calls to other networks, 200 SMS messages, and 200 MB of internet data.

Out of the Bundled calls, US$4.08 would be charges for on-net calls and US$9.5 for calls to other networks. SMS messages cost US$1.5 for on-net messages and US$3 for messages to other networks. The data is priced at US$8.6 per MB.

 

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